Critical success factors for
implementing ERP: the case of a
Chinese electronics manufacturer
Hong Seng Woo
Middlesex University Business School, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the enterprise resource planning (ERP)
implementation experiences of a leading Chinese enterprise. The objective is to provide Chinese
enterprises implementing ERP with knowledge about ERP implementation critical success factors.
Design/methodology/approach – Construction of a case study of the company using
semi-structured interviews of the principals involved in the ERP implementation process as well as
examination of company documentation supported by literature.
Findings – The major findings of this paper are that the critical success factors for the case company
for implementing ERP is similar to its Western counterparts, with the addition of an underpinning
theme – cultural characteristics. This study found that when an attempt is made to adapt the
implementation to the Chinese culture, management and style of the company, implementation is
successful.
Originality/value – The value of this paper is that it presents companies wishing to implement ERP
as well as vendors and consultants with a set of critical success factors that is applicable in China.
Understanding the critical success factors would lead to a smoother implementation path. Although as
a single case study the ability to generalise the findings is limited, support from literature and the
experiences of the company before and after making changes to their ERP implementation add to the
knowledge of ERP in China.
Keywords Manufacturing resource planning, Critical success factors, Electronics industry, China
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is one of the most popular organisation
wide software packages to emerge in recent years. Davenport (1998) suggests that ERP
is the most important development in the corporate use of information technology (IT)
in the 1990s. An ERP system is an integrated software solution that spans the range of
business processes that enables companies to gain a holistic view of the business
enterprise (Ehie and Madsen, 2005). ERP allows the integration of functions, divisions
of businesses in terms of information exchange and flow, and the integration of
business functions as diverse as accounting, finance, human resources, operations,
sales, marketing, customer information and even the supply chain (Koh and Saad,
2006; Motwani et al., 2005; Tarn et al., 2002; Kumar and van Hillegersberg, 2000;
Palaniswamy and Frank, 2000).
The potential benefits of successfully implementing an ERP system is large, and
even, according to Markus et al. (2000), critical to organisational performance and
survival. ERP systems can potentially allow a company to manage its business better
with potential benefits of improved process flow, better data analysis, higher quality
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Critical success
factors
431
Received September 2005
Revised February 2006
Accepted April 2006
Journal of Manufacturing Technology
Management
Vol. 18 No. 4, 2007
pp. 431-442
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1741-038X
DOI 10.1108/17410380710743798